Early Summer Sailing

It's early summer and perfect sailing weather here in the Channel Islands. On Sunday, Dave and I took a day sail out to oil platform Gina and back. It was mostly overcast with the wind blowing from the west at 10-14 knots and swells of 2-4 feet. We sailed at 4-5 knots on the way out to Gina and 4-6 knots on the return leg. We saw many dolphins feeding and playing out by the fishing buoys. An Islander Freeport 36 was leaving the harbor as we were returning. We decided to come about and see if we could catch her. We followed the IF36 for about 30 minutes and kept up with her pretty well.

Today I did a similar day sail with Jon and his daughter Maddie. The conditions were similar as on Sunday with perhaps slightly heavier seas. After a quick overview of the boat we left the slip with Maddie at the helm. We saw a couple of sea lions, lots of pelicans, and the usual other sea birds. Being a pilot, Jon admired the pelicans flying in formation close to the water. We ate lunch after we tacked past Gina. Our return leg was fast and we actually hit 8 knots with the help of a following sea. It was a great day for a sail!









Julianne back in her slip after a washdown.









July 4th was a perfect sailing day! The sky was clear with winds blowing 10-14 knots from the W-NW. I went for a day sail with my riding buddy Bill and his wife Nancy. We had a great sail out past Gina on a course set for Frenchy's Cove on the West end of Anacapa Island. This was one of those perfect days where we could have sailed directly into Smugglers without tacking. We sailed at 4-5.5 knots on a close reach into the swells will Bill at the helm. We saw some dolphins feeding in their usual spot by the fishing bouys near Gina. The return trip was even faster at 5.5-6.5 knots.









The July 4th party on D dock was awesome as usual with lots of great food, drink, friends, and music. It was great catching up with everyone on the dock. I left before the fireworks display to return home and care for Max since he's so terrified by the fireworks. We watched Morning Light, the Disney movie about 11 young sailors competing in the TransPac. This was a great way to conclude my holiday week!

More Improvements

This mid-June weekend was very overcast with heavy winds and seas so I decided to make some more repairs and improvement to Julianne. My dock neighbor Tom helped me hoist a used 1.2 oz drifter sail that I picked up from Joe the painter. The sail came off Joe's 29' Ericson and was a bit larger than expected. It should work well for sailing more into the wind than down wind with less than 10 knots apparent. I can't wait to try it!

Tom then pointed out that the Aqua-Signal Series 25 bi-color bow light was heavily faded. Although the light worked fine, he shamed me into replacing it with a new one (dock peer pressure!). Since this was something that was suggested in our pre-purchase survey, I decided to go ahead and replace it. Of course, the old fasteners were seized, so I had to break off the old wire mounts. Lonny helped me strip the wires and connect them to the new fixture. The new light bolted on nicely and looks great. It should project better with the new clear lens and really dresses up the bow.

While looking for the Ullman Sails shop in Ventura (in case I need to modify the drifter), I discovered Beacon Marine Hardware. In addition to the bow light, they had some other parts and services that I have been looking for. For example, they have a person on-site that will make swage fittings for lifelines and rigging. They also had some replacement ladder latches that I think will work well for our cockpit ladder. It's nice to have an alternative to West Marine now that Boater's World went out of business. Since I now had a source for the lifelines, I decided to replace what I think are the old and rusty original equipment lifelines. I went back to the boat, removed the old lifelines, and dropped them off at Beacon for replacement. The new lifelines were ready a couple of days later and I installed them on Sat, June 27th. They turned out nice and were less expensive than I originally estimated. I may take one of the long upper lifelines back to have it shortened by a couple of inches.










I noticed that the Nicro Solar Day/Night vent I installed in January was no longer turning. I pulled it apart and verified that it wouldn't work under solar power without the battery. Since it had a two year warranty, I took it back to West Marine for a replacement. They told me that they've had problems with these and gave me a replacement which I installed the following weekend.

I also rigged a four foot length of 1/4" shock cord around the tiller with ends clipped to the stern pulpit stanchions on each side to act as a tiller dampener when the boat is docked. This will also come in handy for holding the tiller steady while under sail when I don't have the auto-tiller mounted. While in the cockpit I installed some drink holders and solar lights.










I look forward to enjoying these improvements next week during my Summer vacation!